[Rockhounds] You can buy a diamond-making machine for $200, 000 on Alibaba

[Tim Fisher]

Hopefully they'll find ways to make stones that actually result in
exceptional faceted gemstones (yes I'm a snob, as is almost everybody I
know, pros and amateurs alike). The demand for diamond faceted stones was
wholly manufactured by DeBeers for their mines in South Africa. Probably one
of the most brilliant marketing campaigns ever.

Tim Fisher
nospam at orerockon.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf Of
Kreigh Tomaszewski
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2024 6:42 PM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
<rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Subject: [Rockhounds] You can buy a diamond-making machine for $200, 000 on
Alibaba

In an age when you can get just about anything online, it's probably no
surprise that you can buy a diamond-making machine
<https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HPHT-Cubic-Press-Synthetic-Diamond-M
aking_1600318712802.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.237f4032pTaqn6>
for
$200,000 on Chinese eCommerce site Alibaba. If, like me, you haven't been
paying attention to the diamond industry, it turns out that the availability
of these machines reflects an ongoing trend toward democratizing diamond
production—a process that began decades ago and continues to evolve.

The history of lab-grown diamonds dates back at least half a century.
According to Harvard graduate student Javid Lakha, writing in a
comprehensive piece <https://worksinprogress.co/issue/lab-grown-diamonds/>
on lab-grown diamonds published in Works in Progress last month, the first
successful synthesis of diamonds in a laboratory setting occurred in the
1950s. Lakha recounts how Howard Tracy Hall
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Hall>,
a chemist at General Electric, created the first lab-grown diamonds using a
high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) process that mimicked the conditions
under which diamonds form in nature.

Since then, diamond-making technology has advanced significantly. Today,
there are two primary methods for creating lab-grown diamonds: the HPHT
process and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Both types of machines are now
listed on Alibaba
<https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/synthetic-diamond-making-machine.html>,
with prices starting at around $200,000
<https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HPHT-Cubic-Press-Synthetic-Diamond-
Making_1600318712802.html>,
as pointed out <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492001> in a Hacker
News comment by engineer John Nagle (who goes by "Animats
<https://www.animats.com/classic/index.html>" on Hacker News). A CVD machine
we found is more pricey, at around $450,000
<https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/VOAINO-WD-2204-915MHz-2450MHz-synthe
tic_1601024732626.html>
.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/you-can-buy-a-diamond-making-machin
e-for-200000-on-alibaba/
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